External/Internal Speedhub Question

[Mercianomad]

Hello all.  

Apologies in advance if this forum is for Thorn owners only, but it's the only place I can find with any active discussions of Rohloff hubs.

I recently had Mercian build me a frame with the sliding Rohloff drop-outs for touring, and they* put cable guide braze-ons going down the downtube and along the non-drive-side chainstay for the two Rohloff cables.    

My question: In all photos and in all the Rohloff technical manuals I've looked through of versions of the Rohloff without the external gearbox, the cabling has gone down the seatstays instead of along the chainstays.  If I wish to use the cable guides that Mercian made for me, will I have to get the external gearbox, or can the internal version be routed along the chainstays as well?

Thanks so much,
Matthew

*Caveat:  This was my fault more than anyone at Mercian's.  I gave them carte blanche to work out the routing scheme for the Rohloff cables themselves, since I had no clue about it.

[PH]

You can use the internal version, you’ll need a specific stop on the chainstay to replace the one normally attached to the brake stud.  Rohloff make a clamp on one, part No 8260, shown in the owners manual, which I think you can download from the Rohloff website.
I’ve only seen photos of one other bike with this routing, also a Mercian, I’d have thought they’d have learnt what was needed and added a custom braze on.  IMO paying Mercian prices and then having to rely on bolt on fittings shouldn’t be acceptable. Maybe they assumed you were planning to use the external version, they could have asked.  Bob Jacksons have built a few Rohloff tourers and insist the external version is superior…

[Elisenda]

These might help:

Speedhub finder: http://www.rohloff.de/fileadmin/rohloffde/produkte/speedhub/speedhubsuche2/speedhubsuche.en.html

Choose OEM dropout, say NO to disc breaks, choose the routing along the chainstays, you'll see a picture of your question.

Mounting instructions:
http://www.rohloff.de/fileadmin/rohloffde/download/beschreibung/speedhub/handbuch/montage_2_13.en.pdf

[Mercianomad]

Thank you both.

[robbo]

I had a frame built by Mercian. The cables run down the left side of the down tube, between two stops, bare wire, then two pieces of outer to  a stop under the stay,. which is a bottle boss with a self made piece screwed on, done like this to allow exact adjustment of the angle. I am very pleased with it.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a38/StevenROBSON/mercianbike005.jpg

[Mercianomad]

Hi Robbo,

Thanks for the picture! I would love to see more.

I believe I saw your Mercian on their frappr site many moons ago. Lovely bike.  My frame is the one from Santa Rosa, California on that site.  I still haven't built it up yet, however.  

I'll be doing things a little bit differently - most specifically with regards to where the shifter goes. I'll be doing this instead of mounting it to the handlebar end: http://harriscyclery.com/atlantis/atlantis640-01.jpg

I'm now unsure whether to do the external box or the internal shifting though.  Rohloff recommends that if you ride more than 8000 km/year, you should get the external version, so I might do that, but I'm not sure why or what advantages or disadvantages each option offers other than that it is easier to take the wheel off with the external option.  Modesty aside, it is mostly aesthetics that makes me veer towards the internal version, with the one functional exception being that I want to minimize dangly bits hanging off the bicycle.

It looks like they did the cable routing on your chainstay quite differently from the way they did mine (that is, none at all). Even though my initial post says that I received my frame 'recently', that's a little misleading:  I actually received it in November, 2005, so not very recent at all, and I think I may have been one of the first ever to order one with the sliding drop-out option, when Mercian didn't quite know what to do with them.  Soon after I put the order in, the news update on the Mercian website read, "Now offering Rohloff dropouts!"  At any rate, the cable guide bosses are very unusual on the left chainstay.  I have pictures, but haven't hosted them anywhere.  Looking at the clamp-on stops, I'm pretty sure the braze-on guides devised by Mercian will be useless unless I decide to go with the external gearbox, with the exception of those going down the downtube.

Thanks again for all replies.
-Matthew

[Mercianomad]

Here's the pic from frappr, actually.  You can get some idea of what they did for the routing.

http://image2.frappr.com/pics2/i/20051126/2/6/7/26755fa356ffd2a998a86fb21d32f0bd0_large.jpg

[Mercianomad]

Edit:  Double post